Philanthropy is in my blood. It seems as though I was born asking people for money. My mother, when younger, was one of those people who volunteered for everything. Not only that, but she volunteered me for everything. I went door-to-door (in the days when people did this) asking for donations to UNICEF, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Leukemia, and more. Do people hand over their money more readily when a cute 8-year-old in blond pigtails is knocking at the door?

As a museum curator, I learned to raise my own money for the exhibitions I wanted to have in the museum. I wrote grants and asked for cash and in-kind donations from individuals and businesses. Around that same time, I volunteered to chair a big fundraiser for an organization that cared for people living with AIDS.